A US Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed close to China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing, which said its warships tracked and warned the American vessel.

The patrol by the USS Lassen was the most significant US challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China asserts around the islands in the Spratly archipelago and could ratchet up tension in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

One US defence official said the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef. A second defence official said the mission, which lasted a few hours, included Mischief Reef and would be the first in a series of freedom-of-navigation exercises aimed at testing China’s territorial claims.

A Chinese guided-missile destroyer and a naval patrol ship shadowed and gave warnings to the US warship “according to law”, China’s Defence Ministry said in statements on its website, adding that the military would take all necessary steps to protect the country's security. The US patrol was a “coercive action that seeks to militarize the South China Sea region” and an “abuse” of freedom of navigation under international law, it added.

China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned US Ambassador Max Baucus over the incident, calling the US patrol “extremely irresponsible,” the Foreign Ministry said on its website.

The ministry earlier said the USS Lassen “illegally” entered waters near islands and reefs in the Spratlys

“China will resolutely respond to any country's deliberate provocations,” the ministry said in a statement. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that if the US continued to “create tensions in the region,” China might conclude it had to “increase and strengthen the building up of our relevant abilities”.

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter confirmed yesterday that a US Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese artificial island in the South China Sea.